Absurd travel rules that should be jettisoned

Christopher Elliott Travel columnist • Profile • E-mail

You don’t have to be a card-carrying frequent flier to know that the travel business is littered with silly little rules that make no sense whatsoever.

Actually, it helps that you’re not a grizzled veteran of the skies, because most hard-core business travelers have come to accept these absurd policies, even though they know how wrong, wrong, wrong they are.

From time to time, you might even catch one of these old road warriors in the act of defending the rules when a less experienced leisure traveler has the impertinence to wonder why things are the way they are.

“Don’t you know?” they’ll sniff, “You can’t transfer your airline ticket to a friend.”

Oh, but why not?

Start asking questions like that, and you’re bound to make folks in the travel industry squirm. That’s because there are no valid reasons for having these policies. I’ve been collecting and documenting ridiculous travel rules my entire career in my nationally syndicated column, The Travel Troubleshooter, and I specialize in asking these questions.

Here, then, are five things the travel industry won’t let you do — but should:

Change the name on your airline ticket
Let’s say you buy a set of plane tickets to vacation somewhere with your sweetie. But just before your trip, the relationship turns sour. Your airline may sympathize, but it won’t let you transfer the ticket to another friend — even if you paid for it. The reason? Well, air carriers disingenuously claim that they prohibit name changes because they’re worried about security and potential fraud.

But what they won’t tell you is they’re also worried about their earnings. Making airline tickets transferable could cost the domestic airline industry more than $1 billion in monthly revenues, according to an estimate by San Diego, Calif.-based Innovation Analysis Group.

OK, that may be a tall order, even for an industry that’s currently wallowing in profits. But perhaps a good start would be to allow people who have made honest mistakes — like making a reservation under their nickname or maiden name — to fix their tickets. Those passengers now pay hefty change fees, and in many cases, have to buy brand-new tickets. How about giving those passengers a little break?

Carry a bottle of water through a TSA screening area
The Transportation Security Administration’s prohibition of carry-on liquids and gels should have been stricken from the books months ago, when the government agency decided to replace its outright ban on liquids with one that’s difficult to understand — and enforce. (If you’re still a little confused about what “toiletries of three ounces or less that fit comfortably in one quart-size, clear plastic, zip-top bag” are, you’re not alone.)

Now, instead of looking for terrorist hijackers, our federalized airport screeners are busy confiscating toothpaste, perfume and bottled water. I haven’t seen any conclusive evidence that the liquid and gel ban is protecting us from the bad guys. What I have seen are a lot of needless confrontations between TSA agents and frustrated air travelers, including the highly publicized sippy-cup incident that got Monica Emmerson and her toddler in hot water recently.

Maybe the government needs to buy a clue and realize that the villains have moved on to some other way of blowing up a plane. It’s time for them to move on, too.

Use any part of an airline ticket you want
Here’s another ill-conceived airline rule: Most carriers require their passengers to use every segment of their ticket. If you don’t, they could cancel the remaining portion of your ticket or, in extreme cases, bill you or your travel agent for the fare difference.

These tariff rules make perfect sense for airlines. They use a complex and counterintuitive pricing system called “yield management” that often churns out some truly bizarre fares. A one-way ticket, for example, can cost more than a round-trip fare. A cross-country flight is sometimes cheaper than a short commuter flight. In order to make sure everyone pays these crazy prices, airlines say you must use every flight segment on your ticket exactly as you booked it. (One of my favorite examples is Northwest Airlines — check out Rule 70, part C of its General Rules — which warns that circumventing its tariff rules could result having your frequent flier miles confiscated or being denied boarding. Ouch!)

But the rule makes absolutely no sense for passengers. I can think of no other business that tries to control how its product is used the way that airlines do. It’s about time to jettison this customer-hostile rule.

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